Reply To: The North Atlantic Current

[Rezwan]

Tulse wrote: How much need is there for government involvement in FF? …

I suppose what I’m saying is that it seems to me the model for aneutronic fusion isn’t something like the Apollo mission or the Manhattan Project, but more like the Wright brothers or James Watt — these are efforts that can demonstrate success with relatively little in the way of resources…
I think that if FF or Polywell or Tri-Alpha can demonstrate an over-unity device, the world will (as the saying goes) beat a path to their door.

Polywell is asking for $200 million. Trialpha for 20 at least. LPP needs $4 million for proof of concept and they don’t have the full amount yet – they’ve started the experiments without the full comittment of $ under the “if you build it, they will come” theory. They’ll need another $20 mil to crank out commerical reactors. Money is very tight, and I’d say the more support from all quarters, the better. Also, it’s insurance against suppression – the more people are invested in making alternative fusion happen, the better.

As far as I know, neither Watt or the Wrights published peer-reviewed pieces during their research or required huge government attention — instead, their success was its own proof.

Watt benefited from an astute business model, and he also had government help in the form of the equivalent of a department of defense contract. Indirectly. The story (per Andy Kessler, “How We Got Here”) is that John Wilkinson, Iron Master of Shropshire, had a precision cannon-boring tool. The best in the world, could make effective cannons with narrow “windage”, the gap between cannonball and barrel. The less the gap, the farther the cannonball goes. John hasn’t patented this tool so no one can copy it. It’s his trade secret. So, John gets a big contract from King George, who wants to kill Americans (rebels in the colonies). John needs energy to blow the bellows to burn the high grade coal to get quality iron for his cannons. He tries out Watt’s steam engine and finds that it’s weak. The cylinder leaks steam with every stroke, robbing it of power. He takes it apart and realizes that it’s a cylinder issue. And he, due to cannonball precision for killing requirements, is the cylinder master. So he recast the cylinder using his tool, and it improved the machine 4to 5 times. E.g., 40 Horsepower instead of 8. So, anyway, Wilkinson, with his govt. defense contract, partnered with Watts, and the industrial age took off.

Any which way….